Restaurant Week Only Sucks a Little

If you know where to go, NYC's restaurant week can be quite pleasant. The McFancy spots owned by culinary keiretsus with serious buying power can afford to be more generous than the likes of the mom and pop joints. We caught a real bad one a couple years back at the '21' Club. The first course was a mixed green salad, the entree was your choice of trout or chicken, and dessert was creme brulee. I think they've stepped it up since, but even a revised menu doesn't help the inferiority complex you get from the captain's accusing eyes. At the other end of the suck-no suck spectrum is Blue Water Grill, where the $35 prix fixe menu doesn't read like a catered event from 1987, and where you don't have to be embarrassed that you're ordering from the restaurant week menu. Granted, we still dropped $150 after wine and tip, but likely would have spent twice that much if we went the a la carte route. If you can still manage to get a reservation, I recommend the spicy salmon maki, the almond crusted black ruff with mushroom risotto, and the chocolate torte. No Meyer lemons on the menu, but that guy Meyer's a douchebag anyway. Buen provecho.